Joe C. has recently thrown some names around that the Twins may or may not be interested in. To be honest, the only two I see as real possibilities are Casey Blake and Yunel Escobar. I have already talked about bringing in a veteran like Blake, so let’s talk about Escobar.
Escobar, currently under contract with the Braves, is a short-stop with an incredible arm and a great bat. He is still only 25-years old and has the potential to be an everyday infielder hitting .300/.375/.425 with around 25 HR. If the Twins could land Escobar while giving up nothing more than an outfielder and a pitching prospect they would be in a very good situation.
You see, the Braves are about as perfect of trade partners as there can be. The Twins, as you know, have a surplus of outfielders and many great young pitchers. The Braves have a need for pitching, but have quite a few infield bargaining chips.
The most discussed deal is a straight-up Delmon Young for Yunel Escobar swap. That would obviously work out well for the Twins, but what about for the Braves? A comment I read on MLBtraderumors.comsumed it up perfectly:
Just because the Twins traded entirely too much to get [Y]oung it doesn’t mean any other team will. — tsweet9000
I won’t launch into a prolonged debate on the value of Delmon Young right now, but I will in the future. All I will say is that he has more in him than he displayed in 2008. Escobar will also get better in years to come, so the unanswerable question is, “Who will be best in the end?”
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that Escobar will have a better career than Young, but the Braves remain willing to deal, but they now want more in return.
If you haven’t heard it already, the Braves are active in the Jake Peavy sweepstakes. They would love to package Escobar with others to acquire that ace. The Braves would much rather get Peavy in return for Escobar than anything the Twins could offer, so this potential trade would only work if Peavy goes somewhere else.
Should the Peavy bomb go off somewhere else, though, it would take at least one of our current starting pitchers to make the deal anything near a possibility. Of those five, I would be most willing to give up Perkins or Blackburn.
With that in mind, here is my proposed trade:
Minnesota Gives:
Delmon Young, LF
Nick Blackburn, SP
Atlanta Gives:
Yunel Escobar, SS
Brett DeVall, LHP
DeVall is a high-reward type player. He is only 18-years old and is sitting in the Gulf Coast League, but has a very high ceiling. Jon Sickels had this to say about DeVall when he ranked him as the Braves’ 12th best prospect:
12) Brett DeVall, LHP, Grade B-: A long way away, but a high ceiling.
The Twins get their power-hitting infielder who happens to fill a hole at shortstop, while only giving away an extra outfielder and pitcher. Young can be replaced by Cuddyer, and Blackburn by a plethora of able starters in the organization.
The main drawback to this deal, of course, is that we could be missing something big with Young.
6 comments Last one added 7 months ago — Leave a Comment
John Meyer 7 months ago
I've found this as a very interesting rumor as well. The discussion got pretty heated on MLBtraderumors.com. I would definitely go Escobar for Young straight up but don't see the Braves doing this. Hopefully we can get away with just adding Perkins, I'd like to keep Blackburn. We'll see.
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Andrew Kneeland 7 months ago
Thanks, John. You are right; I'd rather trade Perkins than Blackburn, but I doubt the Braves would go for that.
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Timothy Boger 7 months ago
From the stats that I've gathered, Escobar is in exactly the same position Delmon Young is right now.
2009 will be each player's third major league season. They both were top rookies in 2007. And both of them declined in talent in their second season (okay, Escobar doubled his HR count, but he also dropped his average .035 points. They post similar batting averages (.292/.303) and posted same HR count in 2007 (10). Escobar is on paper an advantage, slightly because of his .793 OPS vs. .738 for Young.
My point here is that Escobar is as unproven and may be just as much a risk as Delmon was for us last year. And I'll say what I'll probably say all offseason- we don't have time to wait for somebody to blossom, we need players who are proven, because the 2009 and 2010 campaigns may be the Twins' best shot at a title. People like Atkins, Beltre, or Blake are better fits for the Twins simply because they have a resume for posting power numbers. Maybe Escobar will produce next year. But maybe he won't.
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Andrew Kneeland 7 months ago
Very true, Timothy, but as far as people know Yunel is three years older than Delmon. If the question is who will prove themselves and develop faster, I pick the one who is three years older.
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Jason Coldiron 7 months ago
I don't see this offer as being nearly enough to pry away Escobar, but it's a good thought.
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Andrew Kneeland 7 months ago
Really? Young AND Blackburn? Like Timothy said above, Young and Escobar are basically the same person, except three years apart. Blackburn could be a very solid NL pitcher.
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